3,000 metres Steeplechase, Men

Paavo Nurmi was expected to dominate this event. In his heat, he fell over the water jump on an early lap, and was helped by Frenchman Lucien Duquesne, who stopped to help him up. Nurmi reciprocated by pacing Duquesne throughout the remainder of the heat, helping him to qualify for the final. A few weeks before the Olympics, Nurmi’s teammate Toivo Loukola had run the best mark on record, with 9:25.2 in Helsinki.

The final was expected to be between Nurmi, Loukola, and the defending champion, Ville Ritola. But Ritola ran poorly, probably tired from his gold medal effort the previous day in the 5,000, and he would not finish. Loukola dominated the final, pulling away on the fifth lap, and winning by almost 10 seconds in a new world best time. His time was recorded as 9:21 4/5, but this was the first race in Olympic history where an electronic time was taken (a system was used at Stockholm in 1912, but no times have been found), and is known to us that time was 9:21.60.